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Friday, January 15, 2010

Courage Without Borders

Photo by www.telegraph.co.uk

When I was a little girl, I was convinced that I was the only real human being on the earth. Everyone else-- my parents, my teachers, the little girls I played dress up with, the boy up the street who'd pull my braids-- were lifelike robots invented by God to test me, to see how I reacted to everyday life. I just couldn't fathom that there were other people like me, with complete sets of feelings and thoughts apart from mine.(If you're a psychiatrist, kindly keep my diagnosis to yourself, pretty please.)If my theory wasn't true, if God didn't create the world just to test me, then what was this life all about, anyway? What was it for?

I've thought about this my whole life long. What is this world all about? Why are we here? What are we for?

In the last ten years, I think I've finally figured it out. At least I've got an answer that works for me.As simple as it sounds, we're here to love each other. To be brave. To sacrifice for each other. To give little pieces of ourselves to each other. And sometimes big pieces.And while we're at it, we sometimes discover God within our lives, in the happiness and in the sadness, in the love and in the sacrifice, where God's been from the beginning.

Tragedies, like the earthquake in Haiti, remind me of this.Photo by www.telegraph.co.ukI'm sure you've seen plenty of info on different ways to donate money towards helping the people of Haiti. If not, I'd suggest the Red Cross, orDoctors Without Borders.And if you can't give money, you can always pray for the people of Haiti and for the courageous folks working to help them.

I just feel like saying how thankful I am for each of you, for the way you enrich my life.And right now, I'm thankful for this video, too. It was made to raise awareness of the problem of Aids in Africa, (which, goodness knows, desperately needs our attention too) but I think it's appropriate now, as well.

Oh my gosh. I felt the same thing when I was a kid. We really do have a lot in common. I wonder how common that is. I've come to the same kind of conclusions as you as well. It's all about how we treat each other. Love, kindness, charity, service...

I've moved!

About Me

I'm happy to be the Minister to Children at First Baptist Church, Greenville, South Carolina. I'm also an author, a teacher, a mom, and Chief Wrangler of Tanner the Slobber Dog and Libby the Murderous Cat. I search my crazy life for God's fingerprints, and then I write about them. I also drink coffee, fight piles of dirty laundry, and dream of French pastries.

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My most favorite quote in the whole wide world

"There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him, but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly...

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."Frederick Buechner

A Psalm For You From Edwina Gately

Be silent.Be still.Wait before your God.Say nothing.Ask nothing.Be still.Let your God look upon you.That is all. God knows.God understands.God loves you with an enormous love.God only wants to look upon you with love.Quiet.Still.Be.Let your God love you.